Renovated Opryland hotel to reopen

Monday

Nov 15, 2010 at 9:28 AM

By ANITA WADHWANIThe Tennessean

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Four shades of freshly laid marble tile line the grand lobby floor. The protective plastic is off the new velvet sofas, and somebody has already flicked the “on” switch to the waterfalls cascading again under the central 15-story glass-domed atrium.The Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center reopens Monday with a $270 million face lift and high hopes from company executives and city officials that it will quickly return to its pre-flood level of business.There’s a lot riding on a comeback for Nashville’s biggest hotel, and not only for Gaylord shareholders. The company lost $35 million to $40 million in profit at the 2,880-room hotel since it shut after the May flood.The city missed out on an estimated $2 million in hotel tax revenue and $2 million to $3 million in sales taxes during its closure. Officials are hoping for a return to normal hotel revenue as well as a boost of good destination PR that the opening is expected to bring.Gaylord is throwing open its doors with a holiday splash: a three-day series of Christmas-themed events featuring the Rockettes, a playground made of ice, fireworks and free concerts. There also is a series of lavish, private events - private audiences with Keith Urban and Sheryl Crow among the perks - designed to showcase the new space to an influential group of 500 meeting planners and travel journalists.Six months ago, the nation’s largest non-casino hotel resembled a partially filled aquarium, with dining chairs and patio umbrellas bobbing in floodwater that rose as high as 24 feet in some areas.Today, the hotel has been restored, but with some added glitz.A large, museum-quality glass sculpture now adorns the Cascades lobby. Flat-screen TVs line the marble wall space behind the expansive check-in counters. In the middle of the main lobby - a room that had been completely submerged - are 10-foot-wide, double-sided sofas; orange velvet high-backed chairs; small tables for guests’ laptops; and colorful throw pillows. Everything is brand new.There are five new restaurants, five football fields’ worth of new carpeting and 700 renovated rooms - although only 120 were damaged during the flood. Two newly renovated suites high above the flood line - one whose theme has yet to be revealed, and the other renamed the “Porter Wagoner Suite” after the late country music star known for flashy suits made by Nashville clothier Manuel Cuevas - will open next week. The clothier, who goes by his first name, hand-embroidered an entire wall of fabric that decorates the Wagoner suite.The hotel relies for most of its business on corporate conferences, ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 attendees.Six months after what some have called a 500-year flood - an event given a fifth of a percent chance of ever occurring - the hotel is back in business with three times the flood insurance but the same level of physical protection it had when floodwaters breached a levee, destroyed much of the hotel’s ground level and forced the evacuation of 1,500 guests.Gaylord is bringing back a security consultant to help the facility create plans for disasters and evacuations.